Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed she will ask for permission to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence, and the vote would be held between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of the following year. That would coincide with the expected conclusion of the UK’s Brexit negotiations.

The Scottish first minister said the move was needed to protect Scottish interests in the wake of the UK voting to leave the EU. She will ask the Scottish Parliament next Tuesday to request a Section 30 order from Westminster. The order would be needed to allow a fresh legally-binding referendum on independence to be held.

Prime Minister Theresa May has so far avoided saying whether or not she would grant permission.

Responding to Ms Sturgeon’s announcement, Mrs. May said a second independence referendum would set Scotland on course for “uncertainty and division” and insisted that the majority of people in Scotland did not want another vote on the issue.

She added: “The tunnel vision that SNP has shown today is deeply regrettable.

”Instead of playing politics with the future of our country, the Scottish government should focus on delivering good government and public services for the people of Scotland. Politics is not a game.“

But speaking at her official Bute House residence in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said the people of Scotland must be offered a choice between a ”hard Brexit“ and becoming an independent country.

The Scottish government has published proposals which it says would allow Scotland to remain a member of the European single market even if the rest of the UK leaves, which Mrs. May has said it will.

The first minister said the UK government had not ”moved even an inch in pursuit of compromise and agreement“ since the Brexit referendum, which saw Scotland vote by 62% to 38% in favor of Remain while the UK as a whole voted to leave by 52% to 48%.

Ms Sturgeon said Scotland stood at a ”hugely important crossroads“, and insisted she would continue to attempt to reach a compromise with the UK government.

But she added: ”I will take the steps necessary now to make sure that Scotland will have a choice at the end of this process.

“A choice of whether to follow the UK to a hard Brexit, or to become an independent country able to secure a real partnership of equals with the rest of the UK and our own relationship with Europe.”

Regional reshuffle: Brexit’s impact on UK Middle East relations

Escalation: the continued conflict in Kosovo

Russia-Ukraine tensions: on sea as on land

MercoPress is an independent news agency started in 1993 which focuses on delivering news related to the Mercosur trade and political bloc, and member countries, covering an area of influence which includes South America, the South Atlantic and insular territories. MercoPress offers an update of the main events which model the Mercosur integration process, the current customs union, its influence on the main players of the region as well as the relations with other economic-political spaces.

Foreign Policy News is a self-financed initiative providing a venue and forum for political analysts and experts to disseminate analysis of major political and business-related events in the world, shed light on particulars of U.S. foreign policy from the perspective of foreign media and present alternative overview on current events affecting the international relations.